There are three ideas
or questions that come to mind from today’s Gospel from St. Luke. Is there a resurrection and what is it? And are people still married in heaven? Lets deal with the last question \ idea first.
Before answering
whether people are still married in heaven, we have to understand, “what is
marriage.” Marriage is the sacramental
bond between that of one man and one woman, which takes place when both
exchange vows in the Church and afterwards when the two become one flesh in the
act of consummation. I leave that to the
parents to explain to their young children.
Marriage is a holy bond often depicted analogously with Jesus’ love for
his bride, the Church, with whom He is one with (c.f. John chapter 17). Nothing can separate this bond – union,
unless the marriage had been unlawful from its beginning or death. When one spouse dies the sacrament no longer
exists, the widow or widower is free to enter into another sacramental
marriage.
The Sadducees, who did
not believe in the resurrection, wanted to know whose wife she would be since
she had seven husbands. She would not be
wife to any of them in heaven, she is no longer married. This does not mean spouses do not recognize one
another or have forgotten that they were married, it’s simply that the sacrament
is no longer binding, “since there is no longer any marriage or giving into
marriage in heaven.” This sounds
disappointing, but in reality spouses will love each other even more deeply in
heaven as all love will now be clearer and face to face with Christ. If marriage still existed in heaven this poor
woman be wife to seven men all of whom are brothers, according to the story. The primary goal of heaven is to be with God,
not my parents, not siblings, not my children, not even my spouse, as much as
we love them and we are to love them greatly, we are to love God more. This is hard for us to hear and you may be
thinking Fr. John has not brought us Good News today. Listen to Jesus’ words, not mine, “If any one
comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children
and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
(Lk. 14:26) Jesus is trying to make a point;
everything you have is from Me anyway.
Whom do you love more, the gift or the Gift-giver?
Finally, is there a
resurrection and what is it? We know
there is a resurrection from two points in Scripture. The first Jesus made in today’s Gospel, that
God is the God of the living and not the dead, for God is the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were dead and they no longer existed the
sacred authors would not have used those terms.
We also know there is a resurrection because Jesus rose first. Here is another question, “Why do you believe
that Jesus rose from the dead? What
proof do you have? The proof rests in
the testimony of the Apostles. But, how
we would know they didn’t make it up?
They could have easily made it up in order to keep the movement
going. We do not believe that because
the Apostles’ testimony is not just based on their written word, but is also
based on their blood – their very lives.
My friends, all the Apostles accepted death rather than renounce what
they believed. In order to do that they
must have seen something and we believe they actually saw Jesus after He had
died, they saw Him resurrected. Remember
my friends, it is rare or unfortunate circumstances in which a person would die
for a lie, but eleven Apostles and the great multitude that followed all gave
their lives for the Truth, sounds pretty credible to me.
We know that there is a
resurrection, but what is it like? Well,
I can’t answer that fully because I am still here with you. When I thought about how to answer this I
figured why not use one of the men who died for Jesus and his belief in the
resurrection to explain it to us. I
close with the words of a great Apostle.
This I declare,
brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold,
I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be
raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For that which is corruptible must clothe
itself with incorruptibility, and that which is mortal must clothe itself with
immortality. And when this which is
corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal
clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come
about:
“Death is swallowed
up in victory.
Where, O death, is
your victory?
Where, O death, is
your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:50-55) AMEN, FJ
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